‘Sinners’ was not a movie I was expecting to enjoy as much as I did this year. When I first saw trailers for the film, I just sort of wrote it off as a mildly interesting take on the horror vampire genre. Then I went to see the movie in IMAX on 70 millimeters at 10:30 pm, and oh boy was I wrong. This movie is so much more than just your average horror flick and while there are some minor issues holding this movie back from greatness, the movie is an undeniably amazing time at the theater.
‘Sinners’ follows two twin brothers, named Smoke and Stake, who return to their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to open up a juke joint. They recruit their prodigal cousin, Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore, to perform at the juke joint. Sammie’s abilities on the guitar are nothing short of amazing, and his playing can bring together communities, as well as summon spirits of the dead and the future. But his playing also attracts the bad sort of attention, and that, in short, is Vampires.
The first thing I feel needs to be mentioned is the film’s score. Ludwig Göransson proves once again that he is possibly the greatest composer working in the industry today, with his masterful mixing of the twangy banjo and punk rock making it a truly unique and electrifying score. The original songs are amazing here as well, specifically ‘Pale, Pale Moon’, as well as ‘I Lied to You’. The use of old songs, specifically Irish folk music, also works well in this movie’s favor, and whenever an Irish folk song started playing, I was definitely bobbing my head.
Another amazing part of the film is its characters. Michael B. Jordan does a spectacular job differentiating the two twins, Smoke and Stack, from one another, and his performance as both is nothing short of breathtaking. Miles Caton, who plays the real main character of the movie, Sammie Moore, has an amazing voice, and I was shocked to find out this was his first acting role. I hope to see more of him in the future. My three personal favorite characters, though, were probably Delta Slim, the hilariously drunk musician, portrayed by Delroy Lindo, Annie, Smokes’ wife, and the smartest character in the film, portrayed by Wunmi Mosaku, and the extremely charismatic and villainous vampire Remmick, portrayed by Jack O’Connell. I enjoy each of these characters for different reasons, but the chief among them is just that the performances by the actors portraying them were so great, I felt compelled to love them the second they came on the screen.
I also think that the direction of the movie is amazing. Ryan Coogler really hits it out of the park with this one. There is one scene, which I refuse to spoil, where we get to see Sammie’s abilities really in action, which was nothing short of breathtaking. It is definitely worth watching in IMAX if you can, as some specific scenes in IMAX switch aspect ratios which really transform those scenes in ways that are just not seen in the regular theater.
I would also add that though I do have some problems with it that I will get into later, the overall story is really strong. The movie really made me care about the central drama related to Sammie and the Twins. The movie also does a great job discussing themes of race and community. I also enjoyed the fact that, for the most part, everyone wasn’t stupid. They made decisions that made sense, as opposed to just making a stupid mistake, so the character could just be killed off. It felt like every kill was earned on screen.
With all this being said, we have reached the part of the article where I have to criticize the movie a little bit, so here it goes. There are too many dangling plot threads throughout the movie. Where did the native Americans go? Why does the message feel really muddled at the end? What are the exact rules on the Vampires in the movie? What is the deal with all the random people in the background of scenes? No, really, in the background of some scenes in this movie, you can see actors who you haven’t seen before, completely unrelated to the plot of the film, after the vampires have basically killed everybody, just standing around acting like they are a part of the main group! It’s distracting, and it detracts from the movie. With this all being said though, I would not say the right thing to do would be to cut things from the movie, or to try and reorganize things because the movie is great the way it is, there are just some minor problems that feel like the movie should have expanded on a little bit more. Maybe there is an extended cut of the movie out there that fixes all these problems, but as it stands, it’s really holding the movie back from perfection.
Other than that, though, this movie is great. Please go see it if you have the chance, it is definitely worth watching, and I promise it’s not that scary for all you scaredy cats out there. If anything this movie makes me more excited to see what Coogler does in his next film, and I hope the studio allows him the ability to fully work on and keep together his ideas so he can truly craft something perfect.
